Hi Heather and Zex

You two have a special blog we love to check in and see the great grands and their parents. Kay and I are busy getting the yard in shape for Spring is it ever gets here. Warm one day and then more snow. Love your snow Christmas picture. Nice Amy and Jeff are having a baby and coming for a visit in April and the guys are going fishing. It is past midnight and I turn into a pumpkin any time now. Love Marilyn and Kay is already sleeping.

Hilda Fleming and skeet

Kevin's Friend
Hilda Fleming and skeet
Written by Marilyn Johnson
March 1, 2009

Hilda Flaming was our next door neighbor. She married Dr. Fleming after his wife died. She never had children but was a friend to my son Kevin. Kevin helped in her garden , cut lawns, and planted bushes. They talked a lot about hunting. Hilda was the coach and teacher at Harold's Club trap shooting range out in the mountains north of Reno. Hilda taught men and older boys to shoot skeet.

Kevin was invited once to go and see the range and my 13 year old son was so excited. I explained to Hilda that he loved hunting but didn’t own a gun and had never used one.
When they got to the range on a spring afternoon, she found a gun just his size and explained in great detail how to use it. Skeet is a form of trapshooting in which the shooter fires from eight different clay targets thrown from traps to simulate birds in flight. Hilda showed Kevin by her example how to shoot the clay birds as they came out of the skeet. Kevin placed his feet in an easy stance and slowly leaned into position to shoot as the decoys were ejected. Kevin shot down decoy number one on the first shot and kept shooting in rhythm and shot all ten in his first try. Hilda jumped up and down and clapped with joy as she hugged Kevin. You are a natural. I can’t wait until I tell the doctor and his friends. He only got to go a few more times with Hilda because we moved out of the Belford home in Reno when my husband and I were divorced.
* * *
Kevin wanted to go with his dad to Stillwater and shoot real birds. It was a year or so before he got to go to the Stillwater marsh with his dad. Meanwhile I was worried and often prayed about this hunting trip. His dad, had a drinking problem and there was a lot of drinking when the men went out hunting. I decided to teach my two sons how to drive, when they were only fourteen and fifteen. I told them why, and that they might have to drive if their father was inebriated when he took them places. They were eager to learn to drive. I took them to a quiet street by their grade school on a weekend. I taught them how to park a car, turn around and backup. I tried to teach them everything they might need to know. I never let them drive my car except when we were practicing.

Kevin went with his dad whenever he was invited. Bryan was not interested and had jobs 2 to earn money on weekends, like playing in a band for church dances. His goal was to save enough money to go on a two year mission for the L.D.S. Church. I was always nervous when Kevin went to Stillwater. with his dad.

One day it was getting dark when Kevin got home and I heard him yelling for me as he arrived. “Mom! Mom! it happened. I had to drive home all the way from Stillwater. Dad had one or two too many drinks. He got in the back seat and fell asleep. I had no choice. It was easy driving until I got to the freeway. I decided to get behind a big truck and then I began to relax. I got all the way to Reno before I had to turn. I was terrified since I had not driven in traffic before and turning corners was the hardest. There were at least three corners, before I got the car home.

"I kept praying I could do it.”
“Where is your dad now?”
“Oh! He woke up and drove home I guess.”

Kevin hugged me and said he was very tired and didn’t want to drive again until he took drivers ed in school when he was old enough.
I guess experience is a good teacher.

Kevin from Heaven

Kevin from Heaven. . . .
written from memory
Marilyn Johnson February
24, 2009

Kevin Clark Jackson was born March 19, 1957 in the Boston Lying-In-Hospital. His dad was busy taking a test in Medical School, but one of his friends was finished with his testing and he took me to the hospital. The nurses kept asking him questions when I was getting admitted. He
blushed and referred them back to me.

Kevin was a beautiful baby. He had blond hair and big, beautiful brown eyes. When he was a few weeks old, I was taking the garbage outside and Bryan, who was about 14 months old, slammed the door. The lock latched and I couldn’t get back in. I jumped up on the iron rod railing and looked through the window because I could hear baby Kevin crying. Sure enough, Bryan had climbed into the playpen to play with him. Bryan was sitting on my baby. I yelled at Bryan to get out of the playpen , but to no avail. I jumped down and tried to get the door open, as the crying got louder. I hunched my right shoulder and banged against the door until I broke the lock. I only weighed about 110 but I was determined to save my baby.
All the moms in our neighborhood student housing made a fuss over him. By the time he was walking, the other boys would hit him, they were jealous of their mom’s attention to him. He didn’t want to go outside any more, so I put up the playpen out side and he liked that.
When he learned to walk and run it was fun to watch him. He walked nice and smooth but got excited and running was his downfall. He would get up on his toes and run off balance until he fell. His imagination took him places, like climbing up the wall by our back door step. He would climb up just fine on the narrow six inch wide retaining wall and stand on top for a minute, but he would run down again and always fell. He got lots of bumps on his forehead and I finally took him to a doctor. After he examined the bumps, the doctor stood back thinking with his arms folded. Then a grin came to his face, “put a helmet on him.” This was fun for Kevin. He felt important, even the bigger boys that used to slap him because he was so handsome, became his friends He tried to take off the helmet to share with the boys but couldn’t get it unfastened.
* * *
By the time Kevin got to high school and we had the yearly exam to play sports,the family doctor realized there was a problem in his back. He was developing Sherman’s disease (hunchback). The doctor assured me that he had found the problem early enough and that it was correctable. He put Kevin in a brace from his neck to his pelvis. It was uncomfortable but he 2
wore it faithfully. His brother Bryan let him have the second hand water bed a neighbor gave to him. Kevin had to wear the brace day and night. It was not fun but he seldom complained. One morning he woke up and his face was so swollen he could hardly breath. I rushed him to the doctor without an appointment, and the doctor saw him immediately. The doctor sat down and looked at the floor in thinking position for a minute or so.
“Marilyn take a broom and push it through the back of the brace, I think Kevin can handle it. This way when he tries to turn, the broom will stop him.”
“Thanks doctor I’ll try it.”
Kevin was a good sport and when it was time to go to the graduation dance, he wanted to go with a girl that he liked. He asked her, but she turned him down.
“ I want to dance and you can’t dance with that brace on.” Kevin was crushed. He told an other girl how bad he felt.
This girl said. “I will go with you, I don’t have a date and I’m graduating too.”
Kevin went to his doctor on his own and asked if he could take off the brace for the dance. The doctor agreed. His only request was to please wear the brace that night after the dance.
I was waiting for Kevin to come home and he was so happy and laughing, he couldn’t wait to tell me what happened.
“Remember the girl that didn’t want to go to the dance, her date didn’t know how to dance and she sat pouting all night while he talked to the other boys. Mom, I danced every dance.”
His date was fun and she didn’t mind that he danced with lots of other girls especially the ones that didn’t have dates and he wanted to help them have a good time, too. Cheerfully he put the brace back on that night with the broom stuck in it.
Kevin was restricted in his activities, or so I thought. Bryan told me that he was worried because he knew Kevin was skiing. He would go off with his friends and I thought he was working. I took him back to the doctor. It was funny, every one in the family would go to the doctor with us. The other four children would sit on the floor. I excused myself for a minute and told the nurse I needed to see the doctor immediately, in the hall.
“Yes Marilyn, what’s up this time?”
“Kevin has been going skiing, his older brother told me. He even won a short course
downhill race. He doesn’t know I know.”
3
“I’ll think of something.
* * *
“Hi Kevin take your brace off and touch your toes. You’ re doing pretty good.”
“My son says you even wear it when you are skiing. He said you won a race. How do you see where you are going?”
“Oh! I hold my breath and look down the hill and memorize where the poles are and then ski it.”
“O.K. Kevin all you have to do is fall just once and you break your neck.” and he left the room quickly. To my knowledge Kevin never skied again.
* * *
After Kevin’s graduation, he went to live with my brother Bob in Salt lake City. A year later he didn’t have to wear his brace any more and his posture was good. I heard through the grapevine he was skiing. I called him on the phone and asked him how he was doing. He laughed and explained, “I’m just giving lessons to beginners on the bunny hill. It is good money.”